Driver circuits are used in a variety of applications, including telecommunications and industrial systems to transmit data signals. Driver integrated circuits or ICs often provide one or more transmit driver circuits as well as receiver circuitry to receive incoming data from the network. When the driver circuitry powered down or disabled, the driver output may be subject to positive and/or negative voltage stresses beyond the normal operating voltage levels. These stress voltage levels, moreover, may exceed the rating of output transistors connected to the driver output. In addition, many design specifications have maximum sourcing and sinking leakage current requirements for driver outputs in the presence of potentially large positive or negative voltages when the circuit is powered down.